About Us
Our Mission
The mission of the Institute for Immunology and Immune Health (I3H) is to leverage Penn Medicine’s first-mover position in immunology to revolutionize routine human immune profiling for maximum impact across medical disciplines. Using the patient’s own immune system as a guide, I3H aims to accelerate development of precise medical treatments for a range of diseases.
Our Goals
- To centralize deep immune profiling and integrated analysis of patients
- To translate and deliver immunological data into quantitative, actionable information to discovery and clinical care teams
- To develop immunologic diagnostic tests, predictive readouts, and targeted medical treatments and therapies
- To promote collaboration and data sharing within Penn and the broader immunology research community
Leveraging Our Leadership Position
As a national leader in advancing knowledge of the basic immunology of inflammation, autoimmunity, cancer, transplantation, and infection, Penn Medicine, together with the University of Pennsylvania, has a rich history of scientific discoveries that have led to significant advances in immune-mediated therapies, such as:
- The rubella vaccine
- Gene therapy
- CAR T-cell therapy
- mRNA vaccines
Penn is the first and currently the only major medical center selectively testing patients for immune health.
Integrating Our Many Resources
After years of close collaboration, Penn Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania have officially joined their respective immunology resources into a single, comprehensive organization. I3H brings together experts from diverse fields — discovery science, immunology, computational science, data management, biostatistics, regulatory affairs, operations, bioengineering, clinical research, medicine, and more.
Fueled with basic research funneled to us by both outside organizations and some 250 Penn faculty members, I3H creates broader opportunities to address diverse aspects of immunology in human health and disease, enables discovery and understanding of the mechanistic science of human disease, and leverages Penn Medicine’s leadership to optimize deployment of routine immune profiling for real-time decision-making to benefit patients.
Harnessing Technology
Translating novel scientific discoveries into practical clinic tools not only requires innovative research and concerted interdisciplinary action, but also a platform to scale human research and infrastructure that spans the laboratory and the clinic.
Significant investments in infrastructure and resources allow I3H to develop or acquire the advanced technologies, including our unique mobile phlebotomy unit, integrated laboratory information systems, high-throughput immune profiling and serology, and advanced computational analysis tools necessary to conduct large-scale, complex studies far beyond the scope of individual labs.
We invite you to explore our Clinical Studies, Platform Assays, and Informatics capabilities.